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GTF - Cattana Wetlands

21/11/2017

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On Tuesday, October 31 approximately 40 Global Tropical
Futures students from Tropical North Learning Academy- Smithfield State High
School and Trinity Beach State school, as well as Yorkeys Knob and Caravonica
State Schools, made their way down to Cattana Wetlands to get some hands on
experience with Tilapia, the ‘canetoads of the waterways’.

Students have been studying the invasive pest for the past
several months through the Global Tropical Futures Tilapia Grand Challenge: an
innovative trial of the iSee online learning environment which involves
students from several schools attending classes together in a digital classroom
where they appear as avatars.Students
are now putting their Science and Engineering brain-caps on to try and come up
with a method to help control the noxious pest or inhibit their spread.

The Cattana excursion gave students and teachers the
opportunity to catch up in person and get their hands right into the issue. Fishing
gear was provided by Holloways Beach Environmental Education Centre and Cairns
Regional Council members came down to lend their expertise on catching the
invasive pest and implementing measures to reduce pest numbers- Dan Hammersley
who earlier this year ran a Tilapia fishing event at Cattana Wetlands, also
attended to help students with some great tips and tricks and brought some gear
kindly donated by Bransfords Tackle Shop.Together with Council members, Smithfield State High School and
Holloways Beach Environmental Education Centre teachers, students spent the
morning fishing for the invasive pest.Catches were then used for dissections and Scientific drawing so that
students were better able to understand the physiology of the species and the
adaptions that make it successful to the point that it is outcompeting native
species’ in local environments.

Council member Dave Lloyd and his dedicated Natural Resource
Management crew, also taught students about the difficulties involved in
maintaining a wetlands area, and the important role that Cattana Wetlands plays
in preserving and protecting many of Cairns’s natural and manmade ecosystems.

Thanks to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks Authority,
students were also able to complete a waterways study where they assessed the
health of the waterway by rating a number of aspects of riparian vegetation and
by collecting and identifying macroinvertebrates (bugs) to determine the level
of pollution in the waterway.

Thank you to all those who assisted and also to Grilled
Burgers Cairns and Cairns Skating Centre who donated prizes to the Global
Tropical Futures students as incentives.

Student solutions so far have been many and varied including
exclusion screens to prevent spread, rumba style vacuum devices which target
tilapia eggs, training birds or dogs to catch the pest and using underwater
drones to target the adults.

We look forward to seeing the final proposals of the
students and to watching the iSee Grand Challenges develop further into the
future!